Malaysia, Russia work for rubber recycling

Malaysia, Russia work for rubber recycling

KUALA LUMPUR (Reuter): Malaysian and Russian scientists said
yesterday they had created a rubber-based compound that can
recycle vulcanized rubber like car tires.

Malaysia's B.C. Sekhar and Russia's Professor Vitaly Kormer
said they had come up with a reactant called "de-link" which
could recycle up to 75 percent of any used vulcanized rubber
product.

"We can do a lot with this, and with improvements, it can be
used for more processes," Sekhar told reporters. He said the
recycled rubber could be used to make cheap products such as
floormats for cars and backing for carpets.

Kormer said the reactant had been tested on natural rubber
products but could also be used for synthetic rubber items.

Sekhar has been involved in the Malaysian rubber industry for
almost four decades while Kormer is known for his work in
Russia's synthetic rubber industry.

The scientists said their reactant complements other ways of
reprocessing used rubber. They said their process, unlike others,
broke down the sulfur used in vulcanizing.

Sekhar said the reactant had been patented and would be
produced in a Malaysia-Russian joint venture, STI-K Polymer,
which is building a plant in the Borneo island state of Sarawak.

STI-K Polymer is a subsidiary of STI Corporation, a company
headed by Tunku Imran Jaafar and Sekhar's son Vinod. Imran is the
second son of Malaysian King Tuanku Jaafar.

Sekhar said the plant would manufacture 10,000 tons of the
reactant a year, adding that recycling rubber would not affect
rubber prices as natural rubber output in Malaysia was shrinking.

"It should be seen as complementing (natural) rubber," he
said.